


First Kiss

by chacusha



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Arranged Marriage, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-30 02:46:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19033171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chacusha/pseuds/chacusha
Summary: The first kisses of Ned and Cat's relationship. Just a short ficlet expanding on canon, I guess.





	First Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Fluff Bingo (2019 Q2). I was given the prompt of First Kiss with any ASOIAF pairing I'm invested in. Harder than expected; I ended up choosing Ned/Cat. (Also omg I am so rusty at writing ASOIAF fic.)

The evening before their wedding is the first time Eddard Stark kisses her. It is on her hand -- some kind of romantic gesture, meant to be a pledge of love and loyalty. It is meant as an indication that he is as willing as she to go through with the marriage, to make it work, to fulfill both the promise his father had made hers as Lord of Winterfell as well as the promise his brother had made her as her betrothed.

He is both now -- Lord of Winterfell and her betrothed.

But mostly, the kiss is awkward, fumbling. Catelyn did not know Eddard Stark well, but the young man had always seemed quiet, serious, shy around women. Romantic gestures did not come easily to men like that, especially when no romantic sentiment lay beneath them.

The wedding ceremony is when Eddard Stark kisses her on her lips for the first time. They are standing shoulder-to-shoulder, straight-backed, the Stark cloak heavy on her shoulders. To her right is Jon Arryn and her sister. Turning away from the two of them, Catelyn pledges her love for Eddard and leans forward to kiss him.

His lips are soft and warm against hers. Though she did not think she would feel anything from such a ritualistic kiss, Catelyn's heart flutters anyway. The kiss contains promise, but a different kind of promise from the type she had been ruminating on earlier: promise not in the sense of a pledge made between people, but in the sense of _possibility_. It contains a hint that perhaps in the future it might be done from a place of affection, of love. One day, if things go well -- and that is a heavy _if_ with war already breaking out all around them -- they will be much more familiar with each other, close, adoring, and the words she said today will be true. That is the promise of this kiss.

The next time they kiss is at the bedding, and it is the first time they kiss in private. There is an edge of pure, lustful desire in the kiss, helped along by the bawdy things shouted earlier by the wedding guests, talk of _rutting_ and _heat_ and big hard manhoods.

It is hard for Catelyn to be fully in the moment, though -- she is too much in her head wondering how the bedding will work, wondering how much to speak and what to say, wanting to please, sizing up Eddard Stark as a person, anxious about the coming war, vaguely worried about Lysa's own marriage bed, even already pondering the possibility and importance of heirs for House Stark. But nevertheless, in spite of the unending train of thoughts going through her mind, she is enough in the world to experience the pleasure of physical sensations -- the feel of her bare skin against the sheets, the thrill down her back when her mouth opens up and their tongues meet.

The first kiss was fumbling, the second graceful and formal and staid. These ones are hungry: two strangers desiring the other's touch. Kindness, an intention to love each other, and a physical desire -- these things are not love, but they are everything Catelyn dared to hope for, a foundation from which love can grow. Time -- gods willing -- would do the rest.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm taking fluff requests [here](https://chacusha.tumblr.com/post/185198408001/fluff-bingo-taking-prompts) for the next 24 hours. Please request something and help me get a bingo. @_@


End file.
